Page 146 of Cohesion

“I agree,” Quinn said, caressing Sebastian’s neck with his thumb. “All of us should. Together or apart. Whatever is best. But we all dealt with a lot the last few days, and it’s important that we work through it properly. Bottling it up only causes the kind of nightmares that Peyton is intimately familiar with.”

Sebastian took a deep breath. He wasn’t good at being honest with his emotions. Talking about them, feeling them, dealing with them maturely. “Fine.” For Peyton if nothing else. Their ex-soldier didn’t need more nightmares.

“If you’d like to use the psychologist we have on call,” Riley said, “I can make an appointment for you. If you’d prefer someone else, I have a list of recommendations.”

Sebastian turned to Quinn, who sat on the chair beside him, and slid a hand onto his knee. “I’ll organise it for you.”

“Thank you.” He didn’t really care who it was. He wasn’t going to be entirely comfortable with anyone. But if it helped, and if Quinn needed them to do this, then he would at least try.

“Good, that’s sorted,” Riley said. “Based on the statement that you gave while you were in hospital, we were able to find the deposit box that had what Mulhall was looking for.”

“What was it?” Sebastian asked curiously. What had been so important as to justify killing and kidnapping people?

“A stack of cash—I imagine this is part of what he promised the men that he hired. There was also a hard drive and physical documentation implicating him in some serious criminal activity.”

“That’s it?” Sebastian asked. So his stepbrother was using it to what? Blackmail him? That’s why he’d sent someone here to kill him and destroy all the evidence? That’s what he’d caused so much turmoil for?

“There are others listed, with identifying information. Enough to start a case against them in Melbourne. Names evenIrecognise. If they’d known that this was out there, being used as blackmail, I’m sure they would have done something about it. And Mulhall would have done anything to find and destroy it.”

Sebatian whistled. Okay. That held more weight. Dane and Errol had been playing with fire, hanging that over Mulhall’s head.

“We’ve sent it off to some cops in Richmond that we trust. That’s out of our hands now. In regards to the case here, the same lawyer that was assigned to Sweeney has been given to Mulhall. He’s also—”

“Hunter’s man,” Quinn guessed.

Riley nodded. “Yes. The prosecution’s also been handpicked by Hunter and Jericho.”

“Is that really necessary?” Sebastian asked. “You already have your defence lawyer. Do you need to be tipping both sides?” Seemed like overkill. Sebastian had always been more than enough to make things go the way that Hunter wanted. Maybe having the prosecution on his side would make iteasier, but how boring was that? He didn’t want any cases handed to him. He liked a challenge. There were some cases, like Rohan’s, that hecould have used that, when heknewthe accused was innocent, and was still fighting a losing battle. Where was his help then?

“We’re not taking any chances,” Riley said flatly. “I don’t care who Hunter has in his back pocket, or what kind of strings he has access to outside of legal avenues. If we can do this the right way, then we’re going to, and we’re going to stack everything in our favour.”

“And if we can’t do it the right way?” Quinn asked.

“Then we do it a different way. They’ll never hurt Sebastian again, or have another chance at you or my brother, or anyone that you both care about, understand? I will do whatever is necessary to ensure that happens.” Riley leaned back. “So, let’s hope the legal avenues work.”

Sebastian hoped that too. Enough people had been pulled into this mess because of him. “Who is this prosecutor?” Sebastian asked. “Are they good?” Hunter had his fingers in every pie in the city, and Sebastian knew that he had prosecutors under his thumb the same way he had Sebastian, but he’d never stopped to consider who they might be. Had he come up against them in court?

Riley tapped his fingers on his mouse pad. “He’s a ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ kind of prosecutor. Hunter vouches for him; he’ll get the job done.”

“What does that mean?” Sounded ominous.

Riley checked his watch. “He’ll be here any minute now. You can see for yourself.”

Sebastian leaned back, almost tipping the chair on two legs, to check the time on the clock on the wall. “It’s sixteen minutes past the hour. Is that an official appointment time, or…?”

As if on cue, the office door burst open. “I’m here! Sorry I’m—oops”—the coat rack crashed to the floor—“Sorry!”

The person who waltzed in was not at all what Sebastian expected. He barely looked legal, for one. His blond hair stoodup like he’d been electrocuted, three of his fingers had Band-Aids wrapped around them—bright yellow ones, like he was trying to turn himself into a Minion—and there was another one on his cheek. The suit he wore had to be at least two sizes too big for him, and he smiled as though nothing but light existed in the world.

“Did you know that they’re putting Maltesers in the ice cream at McDonald’s now?” the baby lawyer said. “I had to get some.”

“Glad you could join us, Mr. Wright,” Riley said. “You’re late.”

“Yeah, ’cause I spilled a little—” He gestured at his jacket, where there was an obvious ice cream stain running down the side. He shrugged. “It’ll come out in the wash.”

Sebastian exchanged a glance with Quinn. “This is a joke, right?” Had to be. At least the defence seemed competent enough to throw the case if he needed to.

“Remember what I said about books?”

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